28/08/2026
🇬🇭🇰🇷 WHEN HERITAGE MEETS CLIMATE ACTION: GHANA AND KOREA JOIN HANDS TO PROTECT HISTORY
What happens when the walls of history begin to feel the pressure of a changing climate?
Ghana and the Republic of Korea are answering that question with a powerful US$4.5 million heritage conservation partnership, running from 2026 to 2030, aimed at strengthening Ghana’s ability to protect its historic forts and castles from climate change.
The initiative will initially focus on six heritage sites in the Greater Accra Region — Ussher Fort and James Fort at Jamestown, Christiansborg Castle at Osu, Fort Augustaborg at Teshie, Fort Vernon at Prampram and Fort Fredensborg at Old Ningo. These sites form part of Ghana’s UNESCO-listed Forts and Castles World Heritage property.
But protecting heritage is not only about preserving stones, walls and buildings.
It is about protecting the stories, memories, dances, music, traditions and identities that give those places life.
And this is where the Ashering — also referred to as the Abuja dance — becomes so important.
The energetic movements, rhythm and joyful performance of the Ashering dance remind us that heritage is not something locked behind museum doors. Heritage lives in people.
The dancers who welcome, usher and entertain visitors are themselves part of the cultural experience. Their performance transforms a visit from simply seeing an old fort into experiencing the living culture of Ghana.
Imagine standing before a centuries-old fort, listening to the drums, watching the dancers move with energy and pride, and realizing that the story of Ghana is not confined to the past.
It is still dancing. 🇬🇭
That is why climate action and cultural preservation must go hand in hand.
If rising seas, coastal erosion, flooding, salt deterioration and extreme weather threaten the historic structures, they also threaten the spaces in which generations have continued to tell their stories and express their culture.
